The alchemy of good curating amounts to this: Sometimes, placing one work of art near another makes one plus one equal three. Two artworks arranged alchemically leave each intact, transform both, and create a third thing.
Interpretation
The arrangement of artworks can enhance their value and meaning beyond their individual qualities.
This quote by Jerry Saltz highlights the transformative power of curation in art. It suggests that when two artworks are placed in proximity, they can interact in ways that generate a new interpretation or emotional resonance, creating an added layer of significance that is not present when viewed separately. Good curation thus goes beyond mere placement; it is about creating relationships that enhance the viewer's experience.
In practice
In a gallery opening, this quote could be used to highlight the importance of curation.
'Untitled' is a time machine that can transport you to 1992, an edgy moment when the art world was crumbling, money was scarce, and artists like Tiravanija were in the nascent stages of combining Happenings, performance art, John Cage, Joseph Beuys, and the do-it-yourself ethos of punk. Meanwhile, a new art world was coming into being.
Artists working for other artists is all about knowing, learning, unlearning, initiating long-term artistic dialogues, making connections, creating covens, and getting temporary shelter from the storm.
I have a soft spot for art that, in terms of subject matter and material, is in bad taste.
The giant white cube is now impeding rather than enhancing the rhythms of art. It preprograms a viewer's journey, shifts the emphasis from process to product, and lacks individuality and openness. It's not that art should be seen only in rutty bombed-out environments, but it should seem alive.
In art, scandal is a false narrative, a smoke screen that camouflages rather than reveals. When we don't know what we're seeing, we overreact.
I don't often go to curator or artist walk-throughs of exhibitions. For a critic, it feels like cheating. I want to see shows with my own eyes, making my own mistakes, viewing exhibitions the way most of their audience sees them.
Television and cinema were all very well, but these stories happened to other people. The stories I found in books happened inside my head. I was, in some way, there. It's the magic of fiction: you take the words and you build them into worlds.
Clothes are unique sculptures, dependent on a supporting human form and created to move.
I don't do a comic book thinking there is a movie. I just want it to be as good a comic book as it can be.
And so when studying faces, we do indeed measure them, but as painters, not as surveyors.
The arts can open the door to the imagination, pushing the envelope of how peace can be created. It takes courage to take this kind of risk, and courage is what we all need to create a better world.
An incurable itch for scribbling takes possession of many, and grows inveterate in their insane breasts.
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